You have two choices. I'll list in my preferred way. The journals should be on the shelf following the standard name for the journal - which may be by LC or NLM title - the latter in a medical library would be appropriate and may follow indexing standards in MedLine.

The second choice is to choose the 'common' name and have various places in the library, and library lists, that say 'shelved under' - including blocks on the shelves, in the catalog, checkin and order records, etc.

[When I worked in a medical library we shelved American journal of the medical sciences as if it did not have the 'the' it lead to serious work arounds and efforts to fix).

Going with the standard and teaching those who help the user ID the standard title, is a better way to go. Everywhere I've worked that has used the second choice has looked at ways of going back to the standard.

Linda
Linda Hulbert, Associate Director 
        Collection Management and Services
O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library #5004
University of Saint Thomas
2115 Summit Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
Phone: (651) 962-5016         Fax: (651) 962-5486        email: lahulbert@stthomas.edu 
Casanova: 'Life is the only blessing man possesses, and those who do not live it are unworthy of it.'

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Beth Shively Wages
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 11:31 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Shelving organization

My library is in the process of cleaning up and reevaluating our serials collection. The collection is stored alphabetically in one location. We currently have a few journals shelved by their initials (for example, JAMA), with the rest shelved by full name. My concern is that using both could potentially be confusing for students.

My question to the forum is about how those of you with alphabetized collections handle shelving location for journals that are known by their initials, either officially or unofficially. Do you shelve by initials to use a more commonly known name, or by official journal title to maintain consistency?

I'm relatively new to this position and don't know if there is any common school of thought.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide!

Beth Shively Wages
Serials Specialist
Lee and Jim Vann Library
University of Saint Francis
eshively@sf.edu